Kenneth Wayne Mroczek was supposed to be feeding his
mother's cat while see was out of town. Instead, he set her home on
fire then broke into a neighbor's garage where police found him hiding in the
attic.

Mroczek pleaded guilty in Clackamas County Circuit Court on
Friday to arson and to an unrelated burglary charge. He was sentenced to seven years and two
months in prison.

Prosecutor Bill Golden said Mroczek poured gasoline
throughout the house, which burned quickly.

Just prior to the September 2013 incident, Mroczek told a
neighbor that the next time the neighbor
saw Mroczek's mother's house it would be on fire, Golden said.

During the investigation, Clackamas County detectives
matched Mroczek's DNA to a May 2013 burglary
not far from his mother's home on Southeast McKinley Avenue.

Mroczek declined to address the court. "I have nothing to
say, Your Honor," he said to Circuit Judge Susie Norby.

His attorney, Arthur Knauss, said Mroczek had a
long-standing problem with meth. He also suffered from post-traumatic
stress disorder related to severe burns he received when he was nine years old.

Mroczek, 48, has an extensive criminal
history.

Mroczek was arrested
in August 2010 by Milwaukie police after allowing his
13-year-old neighbor to drive his car. He was convicted in March 2011 in
Clackamas County Circuit Court on reckless endangerment and sentenced to jail
time, court records show.

His criminal convictions also include
intoxicated driving in 1990 in Clackamas County, attempted assault in 2003 in
Coos County, intoxicated driving in 2012 in Clatsop County and failure to
perform the duties of a driver and possession of methamphetamine in Multnomah
County in 2012.